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Brian T.

Brian T.

Joined on 11/03/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 31
Most Favorable Review

Everything You Throw At It

ASUS EAX1900XT/2DHTV/512 Radeon X1900XT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 CrossFire Supported Video Card
ASUS EAX1900XT/2DHTV/512 Radeon X1900XT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 CrossFire Supported Video Card

Pros: This card handled everything I threw at it. So I started throwing stuff at the cat instead.

Cons: The cat left. Oh wait, that's a Pro...

Most Critical Review

Power LED Go Bye Bye

LIAN LI PC-6077B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
LIAN LI PC-6077B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Doesn't weigh much.

Cons: Even with a blowhole, it's a hot case. And it's a bit tight for large graphics cards. And, after a year, the blue power LED burned out.

Overall Review: I want my blue power LED back. My Antxcs are older and their LEDs never burned out.

Cheap

ASUS A8V-E SE 939 VIA K8T890 ATX AMD Motherboard
ASUS A8V-E SE 939 VIA K8T890 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Cheap. As in inexpensive. Has a PCI-E 1x slot for my tuner card.

Cons: Cheap. As in low quality. Has TWO PCI-E 1x slots total. I've never known anyone that's needed more than one.

Overall Review: Just arrived today, haven't installed it yet. First impression: cheap quality. Capacitors are not name brand, quality of the soldering leaves a lot to be desired. Lots of silkscreened areas with no functionality, but that's because this is a low-end VIA chipset, nothing to do with the manufacturing quality. Hopefully it will fire up and live to see a ripe old age. Bought it to build a SUSE 10.2 box out of parts I had lying around (Venice 3200, IDE drive, beater case, 400 watt PSU, etc)

I Really Don't Understand...

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ - Athlon 64 San Diego Single-Core 2.4 GHz Socket 939 89W Processor - ADA4000DKA5CF
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ - Athlon 64 San Diego Single-Core 2.4 GHz Socket 939 89W Processor - ADA4000DKA5CF

Pros: why anyone is buying anything other than this chip. Runs extremely cool, easily overclocked to FX-57 speeds and beyond with the right memory. Save yourself two bills and buy this CPU.

Cons: There are no cons. Do the math.

Overall Review: Don't buy a San Diego 3700. Don't buy an FX-anything. Don't buy the version of this chip with the E4 memory controller - go with this E6.

Tighter than you think...

OCZ Value Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ25331024VDC-K
OCZ Value Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ25331024VDC-K

Pros: These sticks and the OCZ2533512VP (with the copper heat spreaders) are basically the same. Some say 4-4-4-8 on the label, some say 4-4-4-12. They ALL come up as 4-4-4-12 according to the SPD, and they ALL can be run manually cool and Prime 95 stable at 4-4-4-8. I've used both successfully on both Abit and Asus motherboards (you can mix them on the same motherboard without problems if you want), with 640 Prescotts overclocked to 3.6GHz. Really, really nice ram.

Cons: None.

It's okay...

LIAN LI PC-6077 Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
LIAN LI PC-6077 Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: It looks very nice. And it is 17% cheaper than the black version.

Cons: It's a little cramped, and it gets pretty warm with the latest generation of video cards, even with the blowhole. Would benefit from a 120mm exhaust fan and/or an 80mm side panel fan. Wouldn't buy again...